What to Make of Rise in Test Scores? Top Ed Leaders Differ [via WNYC]

Test scores continue to be the main way we talk about education progress. That’s a problem. Talk to experts in assessment and psychometrics and they’ll be the first to tell you what these kinds of scores are and are not good for. Here’s a recent example from New York of how test scores steer the conversation. The article begins:

How confident should New York parents, students and school staffers feel about the progress on this year’s third through eighth grade math and reading tests? Even the state education commissioner and regents chancellor were drawing slightly different conclusions at a forum on testing sponsored by the publication City and State.